Communication systems are typically configured to communicate voice, data, and/or any other information from one location to another. An example communication system is a point-to-point communication system or network that may be established between two locations by communicatively coupling one or more communication circuit segments or network segments between those locations. For example, a customer seeking to communicate large amounts of information between two office locations may lease a point-to-point network (PTPN) from a service provider. If the two office locations are within the same service area, the PTPN may be formed using one or more communication circuit segments owned by a single service provider. If the two office locations are separated by a distance that spans multiple service areas, circuit segments owned by one or more service providers may be used to form the PTPN.
Communication systems are typically implemented based on a seven layer Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model, which ensures the interoperability of different communication technologies and equipment made by different manufacturers. The seven layers define different aspects of communication systems and include a physical layer, a data link layer, a network layer, a transport layer, a session layer, a presentation layer, and an application layer. Service providers typically offer PTPNs based on the physical layer (i.e., layer one) and the data link layer (i.e., layer two). The physical layer defines the hardware (e.g., copper, fiber optics, etc.) and the hardware protocols (e.g., signaling, layer-one framing, connectivity, etc.) used to communicate data. Example layer-one technologies include time division multiplexing (TDM) technologies and wave division multiplexing (WDM) technologies. Example TDM technologies are T1 lines, Digital Signal Level (DS-n) lines, Synchronous Optical Network (SONET)/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) systems, etc. Example WDM technologies include dense WDM (DWDM) and coarse WDM (CWDM) technologies. An example layer-one standard used in conjunction with WDM technologies is a lambda circuit. A lambda circuit may be used to transmit a plurality of light waves over an optical cable. Each light wave is referred to as a lambda and is transmitted using a wavelength different from the wavelengths of the other light waves using a WDM technology. As a result, all of the light waves may be transmitted simultaneously via the lambda circuit. The data link layer (i.e., layer two) defines various communication protocols used to ensure data integrity. Example data link layer protocols include Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, Token Ring, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), and Frame Relay.
In the past, layer-two data frames were transported over a PTPN via a single type of layer-one technology using, for example, an Ethernet over SONET service, an Ethernet over lambda service (e.g., Ethernet over CWDM, Ethernet over DWDM, etc.), a Frame Relay over Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) service, etc. For instance, an Ethernet over SONET service may be used with a PTPN having one or more SONET circuit segments communicatively coupled between two nodes (e.g., source and destination nodes). Data is communicated using the Ethernet over SONET service by embedding the data in a layer-two Ethernet data frame and then embedding the Ethernet data frame in a layer-one SONET data frame. The data remains within the same SONET data frame as it is transmitted through the PTPN.
Some PTPN networks include layer one technologies transmitted over other layer one technologies. An example PTPN having embedded layer one technologies includes a T1/SONET PTPN, in which a T1 circuit segment is implemented within each SONET circuit segment of the T1/SONET PTPN. In this case, an Ethernet over T1/SONET service may be implemented by embedding data into an Ethernet data frame, embedding the Ethernet data frame into a T1 data frame, embedding the T1 data frame into a SONET data frame, and transmitting the SONET data frame via the T1/SONET PTPN.
A PTPN may be formed using one or more circuit segments depending on the distance over which the point-to-point network is implemented. For example, a PTPN may be a metropolitan area network (MAN) that is within a single service area such as within one city, one metropolitan area, or one local access and transport area (LATA) and may be implemented using one or more circuit segments owned by a single service provider. However, a PTPN that spans multiple service areas such as, for example, multiple LATAs, a country, etc. may be referred to as a wide area network (WAN) and implemented using a plurality of circuit segments, each of which may be owned by a different service provider. In the latter case, each service provider is responsible for managing and maintaining their portion or segments of the PTPN.
Traditionally, service providers assign a circuit identification (CID) to the communication circuit that forms each PTPN and use the CID for operations, management, administration, and provisioning (OAMP). A CID may be used to identify a PTPN having one or more circuit segments, provided all of the circuit segments are implemented using the same layer-one technology (e.g., all circuit segments are SONET segments or all circuit segments are DWDM segments). For example, an Ethernet over SONET (EoS) PTPN traversing multiple LATAs may be implemented using a plurality of SONET segments and may be identified at any location along the EoS PTPN using a single CID because the layer-one technology (e.g., SONET) is consistent throughout the communication circuit.
Although recent technology developments enable communicatively coupling circuit segments of different layer-one technologies to form a single PTPN, each segment of a different layer-one technology requires a different CID. Managing multiple CIDs for a PTPN is especially complicated when multiple service providers cooperatively form the PTPN. For example, if a customer experiences a data communication problem, the service providers that own portions of the PTPN need to work cooperatively to troubleshoot the problem. Such cooperative work is complicated when each service provider refers to their portion of the PTPN by a different CID. Additionally, using multiple CIDs throughout a PTPN requires service providers to analyze which CIDs from which service provider are connected to their CIDs.